Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Inc chairman Bayden Barber said there was a lot of interest in the Takitimu seafood factory site.
“We have a short-list of [potential tenants] that want to lease that property, and we are just working through that at the moment.”
He said the short-list included “similar industries” that were all “fishing related”. He said the aim was to have a new tenant in there this year.
Barber said the iwi owned the building and facilities, which formerly housed Takitimu, but they leased the land from the council.
Barber said there were no plans to develop the site at present but “that is a long-term conversation about what we do with those properties”.
Takitimu Seafoods (pictured) closed almost a year ago in Napier. The owners are working to get a new tenant. Photo / Paul Taylor The iwi also owns a property diagonally across the road.
The D’Esposito family owned Hawke’s Bay Seafoods before it was sold to Ngāti Kahungunu.
Marcus D’Esposito is the director of Hastings-based fisheries company Saltwater Seafoods, which has been growing since it was founded in 2021.
He said he was not interested in leasing the Takitimu site for the business as it was too big.
“Definitely not that property,” he said. “We are happy in our little space [in Hastings].”
He said they were looking at opening a smaller operation elsewhere in Napier, in the near future, to complement their Hastings operation.
Covid caused significant problems for Takitimu Seafoods including cutting exports , and a large restructure in 2022 was not enough to save the business.
Cyclone Gabrielle also impacted the business prior to its closure.
Takitimu operated a popular fish and chip shop, on top of its large fisheries operation, until it closed.
A passer-by has scribbled the words “food shop please” on a lease sign currently up at the property.
Gary Hamilton-Irvine is a Hawke’s Bay-based reporter who covers a range of news topics including business, councils, breaking news and cyclone recovery. He formerly worked at News Corp Australia.
